Interview: Gregg Daniel of THE DUAT, Streamed Online

Gregg Daniel is an accomplished actor, director, and teacher. He is a lecturer at the esteemed dramatic arts school at the University of Southern California and has won awards for both acting and directing. Most recently, he appeared in an intriguing one man show, THE DUAT, about an FBI informant grappling with his past in the Egyptian afterlife. We caught up to discuss his career, his character in THE DUAT, and how he finds balance.

Whilst times have been challenging recently, Daniel has been amazed at how much he and his teams have been able to achieve academically. With many students leaving USC to return home and many actors isolating, "Adverse conditions sometimes create amazing opportunity," said Gregg. "I was skeptical at first; how do you teach advanced acting skill to people spread across a few different states? But we made it work. We got used to seeing each other in squares on a computer and teaching and interacting like that. I'd prefer sharing a space with the students, but we genuinely made it work, and I think it says a lot about the quality and hardiness of people in the arts industry how they stood up to the challenges the pandemic threw at them." In his capacity as lecturer and director, Gregg Daniel also travelled to Perth to direct the 3rd year WAAPA students in 2018. "I had a great time!" he said. "I was genuinely amazed at the depth of knowledge the students had, as well as their knowledge of several acting techniques. I'd love to return one day when the world opens up again."

As well as lecturing at USC, Daniel is also the artistic director of the Lower-Depth Theatre ensemble in LA, and they also managed to keep going from behind screens.

"We found a way to make online content and to make it work. We commissioned playwrights from across the US to make ten-minute plays about the pandemic which we recorded over Zoom. What began as a project to keep people engaged ended up being wildly successful, with so many actors and creatives getting involved, and huge audience engagement. What else could we do? We didn't want to let our audiences go away and let our creatives suffer." It seems, in fact, that there was a need for the arts to bring people together in trying times. "The start of the pandemic coincided with the murder of George Floyd, so there was a need for the community to come together in whatever way they could and discuss what was happening, and the arts has always been good at allowing society to consider what's going on. The plays were well received, people enjoyed seeing them, but they also appreciated that the arts were still there to provide that reflection, even if it wasn't in the traditional form."

THE DUAT tells the story of Corneliius Johnson, an FBI informant based on real life informant William O'Neal. Gregg Daniel stars as Johnson, and in the one-actor performance also plays people in Johnson's life such as his mother, father, grandma, and class-mates. Daniel's character finds himself in the Egyptian afterlife- the duat- and prays for the Christian God to help him, before begging the Egyptian god Osyris to put him out of his misery, then finally unburdening his soul with the story of his life, all whilst grappling with his role in the assassination of two Black Panther members.

"All that's on stage, is the percussionist, me, and the language. You tune more into what is being heard. There's the words themselves, the music, and Roger Q. Mason has the ability to make the words come across with a certain musicality, so the audience really tunes in to what they're hearing as well as how they're hearing it."

Gregg Daniel finds tremendous value in the act of storytelling and feels that society always has an appetite for the unique stories such as THE DUAT that look back on where society was and helps us better understand where we are now.

"Stories are in every culture and ethnicity, and there's always a need to tell these stories and look at where we came from and where we're going. This is about the burgeoning Black Panther movement in the 1960s, but it also tells the story of America. You could go and learn about the history from a book, but what you really want is to see someone experience it and learn from that."

The character Cornelius Johnson is based on William O'Neal, the real-life FBI informant whose information and co-operation led to the FBI assassinating Fred Hampton, the head of the Black Panthers in Illinois. There is much to explore about O'Neal's motivations and what got him to where he was, and it seems there would be a great deal of preparation to do to play such a character. Gregg Daniel, however, took a slightly different approach.

"You have to immerse yourself in the language. I could throw myself into the historical study of it, but the play is much more about the language, especially on a minimal stage with just one actor. You ask yourself 'What are the stories in the words?' I'm at the stage with my acting where I trust the process, and in this case, I know Roger Q Mason and I trust their process and use of language, and that the words and stories will give an insight into what I'm doing as an actor. Young actors seem to want to do everything and consider every part of the production, but my process is about the words, which become my conduit into the character I'm playing and the story I'm telling. With any great story like this you can trust the language, and this was no different."

Whilst Gregg Daniel may take a minimalist approach to getting into character, he by no means considers the process finished.

"When I was starting out, I remember one of my teachers said, 'You don't really hone your craft until you're forty.' As much as a brash twenty-year-old me didn't want to hear it, it's true in a way. By now my life has seen love and loss and happiness and sadness and so much more, and that all contributes to the palette that I bring with me to a role. You must live to be a good actor. You learn as you live. It's like if you've never been in love it's hard to portray love, but if you've been in love and you know the feeling of this one other person driving you to distraction you can then portray that on stage or on screen."

THE DUAT is a complex show in which the character comes to terms with what he's done in his life. Johnson became an FBI informant as a means of finding a place in society, but in doing so betrayed his background

"The main message is about forgiveness and belonging. As an African- American I know that desire to belong to society, but because of racism and bigotry it can be hard. The fact of the matter is that people of colour often feel on the fringe of society. There's that desire to be invested and enfranchised in a society that everyone has, and so much to deal with if you don't get it for whatever reason. I certainly understand my character from that perspective, he simply wants to belong." There is another strong element to the play, with Johnson struggling in his inner battle to reconcile what he'd done in life with what he wanted to do.

"It's also about forgiveness. In my character's quest to fit in he did some things that he wasn't proud of in hindsight. He doesn't talk about them yet they shape the person he becomes in later life. He wants forgiveness, but before you can seek forgiveness from others you have to be able to forgive yourself. The character comes to understand that over the course of the play. Forgiveness is amazing. There are so many stories in the world about forgiveness, and many more about being unable to forgive. In the play, Cornelius Johnson learns how to forgive himself. Once you forgive yourself it's easier to find a place in society that is closer to where you want to be, and you feel worthy of that place. That's what I hope people take away. Not just BIPOC individuals, but everyone wants to feel worthy of a good place in society. Many people have things in their past that they haven't forgive themselves for, so forgiveness is big. To forgive ourselves as a society, we need to take responsibility for and forgive ourselves. So many societies can understand right now what forgiveness is, and so many more societies would be better if they understood forgiveness. Forgiveness, redemption and reconciliation never go out of style, whether it's reconciliation with our society or simply with ourselves."

THE DUAT was streamed online by The Center Theatre Group as part of their Not a Moment, But a Movement series. More information from The Center Theatre Group.

Main photo credit: Diana Ragland

Show pictures thanks to Center Theatre Group.

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